I had spent a good whack of time preparing terrain as evidenced by previous blog posts, made up some new supports and re-based some old ones, printed out force morale trackers and two unit boards. I even laid out the terrain the night before to make sure I had everything I needed. And then what did I do? I left a box behind, filled with roads, hedges and ploughed fields.
These pictures were snapped the night before when I had set it all up, and I was rather pleased with the result. The "new" second hand mat is lovely, even my cobbled together buildings look alright. I was and still am rather annoyed with myself for such a slip up!
Moving on. On discovering I had made this egregious error we had to improvise, and we ended up with bin bag roads, polystyrene chip hedges and a cloth as the ploughed area. I was initially thinking it was rather annoying that I hadn't managed to get some flock onto the new orchards I had been working on, but that pales in comparison to polystyrene hedges, let me tell you.
As a result I really didn't take many photos and I sort of forgot to take notes on the game to be better able to write it up. So perhaps just an overview to track what happened and I can try and do a proper first AAR on the next game!
For my 12 points of support I went with a FOO, a tripod mounted MG42, three entrenchments and an adjutant. I also had an extra entrenchment from strengthening my position after the last victory.
Force morale rolls favoured the Germans, starting on 11, while the US started on 8.
The US rolled high for patrol moves and got an extra four, and used these to push on down the road. He ended up with JOPs in La grande maison du pays, behind the trees to the north side of the road and behind a "hedge" on the southern side looking out over the ploughed fields. I placed one in the orchard, one behind and to the side of the east facing building and a final one on the far side of the same building.
The US started with a four consecutive phases and finally a turn end. In that time he brought on a sniper in la grande maison du pays, a sherman which went onto overwatch, a senior leader south of the road and a squad nearby.
Then I finally got a phase! not actually too damaging as I would have been unlikely to bring anything on in that time aside perhaps from a FOO. And for my first phase I did nothing but accumulate some CoC points.
The US then brought on a 50 cal machine gun again to the south of the road and a squad to the north by la grande maison du pays. The sherman trundled down the road a little more. At this point he threw a double six (again) and after much swithering decided to start moving one squad across the ploughed field towards the seemingly empty German end. The 50 Cal was on overwatch but the sherman had used both of the JL command pips to move so was not able to cover this advance.
Being broken ground the squad couldn'd double time it over the area and had to take a more measured approach which failed. His second roll turned up nothing that could get his squad to move for a second time. And the sneaky hun player pounced!
I got a rather fortunate roll and was able to deploy two squads and a senior leader, getting both squads to fire into the squad in the open (albeit on a tactical stance). It was brutally effective in terms of shock, not many killed but about 7 points of shock. The 50 Cal opened up in retaliation but deploying in an entrenchment meant all he managed was to wound and knock out one squad JL, the communist Kurt Zimmerman. My force morale dropped to 9.
The US fired into the same German section in their phase with the sherman, but only managed some shock. He also rallied some shock off the now paralysed squad sitting out in the field. He was however accumulating a fair number of CoC points but it was not helping his current situation.
When the Germans got a phase again they had more dirty tricks up their sleeve. The panzershreck team deployed by the road side and lined up the sherman. I need an 8+ to hit it after taking range bands into account, and rolled an 8. With the 13 dice I rolled 6 hits, which is not a bad conversion given the Shermans matching armour value of 6. He managed two saves, and the Sherman was brewed up. His force morale dropped to 6.
In the same move the FOO arrived on the table and called for mortars. The US player managed to roll yet another double phase and seeing this I felt he was going to be able to rally the squad and get them out of harms way, I took the chance and burned both CoC dice, that the Germans start the scenario with, on activating my two squads and pouring more fire into the precarious US squad. It worked, enough shock to pin them.
Now the US player was facing dice woes and pulled on his remaining senior leader to try give him more activation options, and deployed him near the sniper in the hopes of getting him to finally use his rifle. His 50 Cal was battering away at my 2 Section with the downed leader and I was losing a few men.
He was managing to roll a fair number of fives and sixes but little in the way of getting a co-coordinated attack going, so he tried to move a squad forward on the German left flank and attempt to save the game and get off the table. This was met by the final section from the German side who unleashed all their fire power into the rather bold US squad. This had to be blunted so I took the opportunity to deploy my final support, the MG42 team, and batter into the Americans.
It wasn't decisive and we spent a few phases trading fire, primarily from his 50 Cal which was well positioned to my squad, and I started to lose a good number of men and enough to have a team wiped out which dropped my morale to 7. In this time my FOO had got a ranging shot on target and put two shock onto the 50 Cal.
On the other flank I had managed to put enough shock and kills on the isolated squad to break them and the subsequent force morale roll dropped the Americans onto 4 command dice, and my FOO managed to call in a barrage which pinned the 50 cal and obscured my sight of it and the broken squad.
Between my MG42 and the now battered 3 section they manage to break the second US squad on the German left flank, forcing another morale roll but with no effect. At this point I realised if I ended the turn both US squad leaders would rout and force his morale down lower. He was unlucky with his rolls and his morale tumbled to 0.
I was lucky in that my opponent assumed I would defend in a similar manner to the last encounter with mines, wires and road block and used a fair bit of his support on engineer teams. He also didn't bother bringing on his second sherman which would have caused me more problems. He had no mortars or smoke which meant I was able to pop up and hit him when it suited me.
It was, nonetheless, a brutal encounter and I lost 8 men of which, luckily, 7 are immediately returned to duty due to the force morale difference, and one will make his way back in a future battle. This means I am 4 men down going into the next battle but having won this one I can strengthen my defences again which helps. The US player will be on a monstrous 31 support points. Gulp.
Next time we are playing at my house so there will be no AWOL terrain! Apologies for the comical terrain in the pictures and the rather limited and poor photography. It is a learning curve!
These pictures were snapped the night before when I had set it all up, and I was rather pleased with the result. The "new" second hand mat is lovely, even my cobbled together buildings look alright. I was and still am rather annoyed with myself for such a slip up!
As a result I really didn't take many photos and I sort of forgot to take notes on the game to be better able to write it up. So perhaps just an overview to track what happened and I can try and do a proper first AAR on the next game!
For my 12 points of support I went with a FOO, a tripod mounted MG42, three entrenchments and an adjutant. I also had an extra entrenchment from strengthening my position after the last victory.
Force morale rolls favoured the Germans, starting on 11, while the US started on 8.
The US rolled high for patrol moves and got an extra four, and used these to push on down the road. He ended up with JOPs in La grande maison du pays, behind the trees to the north side of the road and behind a "hedge" on the southern side looking out over the ploughed fields. I placed one in the orchard, one behind and to the side of the east facing building and a final one on the far side of the same building.
The US started with a four consecutive phases and finally a turn end. In that time he brought on a sniper in la grande maison du pays, a sherman which went onto overwatch, a senior leader south of the road and a squad nearby.
Then I finally got a phase! not actually too damaging as I would have been unlikely to bring anything on in that time aside perhaps from a FOO. And for my first phase I did nothing but accumulate some CoC points.
The US then brought on a 50 cal machine gun again to the south of the road and a squad to the north by la grande maison du pays. The sherman trundled down the road a little more. At this point he threw a double six (again) and after much swithering decided to start moving one squad across the ploughed field towards the seemingly empty German end. The 50 Cal was on overwatch but the sherman had used both of the JL command pips to move so was not able to cover this advance.
Being broken ground the squad couldn'd double time it over the area and had to take a more measured approach which failed. His second roll turned up nothing that could get his squad to move for a second time. And the sneaky hun player pounced!
I got a rather fortunate roll and was able to deploy two squads and a senior leader, getting both squads to fire into the squad in the open (albeit on a tactical stance). It was brutally effective in terms of shock, not many killed but about 7 points of shock. The 50 Cal opened up in retaliation but deploying in an entrenchment meant all he managed was to wound and knock out one squad JL, the communist Kurt Zimmerman. My force morale dropped to 9.
The US fired into the same German section in their phase with the sherman, but only managed some shock. He also rallied some shock off the now paralysed squad sitting out in the field. He was however accumulating a fair number of CoC points but it was not helping his current situation.
When the Germans got a phase again they had more dirty tricks up their sleeve. The panzershreck team deployed by the road side and lined up the sherman. I need an 8+ to hit it after taking range bands into account, and rolled an 8. With the 13 dice I rolled 6 hits, which is not a bad conversion given the Shermans matching armour value of 6. He managed two saves, and the Sherman was brewed up. His force morale dropped to 6.
In the same move the FOO arrived on the table and called for mortars. The US player managed to roll yet another double phase and seeing this I felt he was going to be able to rally the squad and get them out of harms way, I took the chance and burned both CoC dice, that the Germans start the scenario with, on activating my two squads and pouring more fire into the precarious US squad. It worked, enough shock to pin them.
Now the US player was facing dice woes and pulled on his remaining senior leader to try give him more activation options, and deployed him near the sniper in the hopes of getting him to finally use his rifle. His 50 Cal was battering away at my 2 Section with the downed leader and I was losing a few men.
He was managing to roll a fair number of fives and sixes but little in the way of getting a co-coordinated attack going, so he tried to move a squad forward on the German left flank and attempt to save the game and get off the table. This was met by the final section from the German side who unleashed all their fire power into the rather bold US squad. This had to be blunted so I took the opportunity to deploy my final support, the MG42 team, and batter into the Americans.
It wasn't decisive and we spent a few phases trading fire, primarily from his 50 Cal which was well positioned to my squad, and I started to lose a good number of men and enough to have a team wiped out which dropped my morale to 7. In this time my FOO had got a ranging shot on target and put two shock onto the 50 Cal.
On the other flank I had managed to put enough shock and kills on the isolated squad to break them and the subsequent force morale roll dropped the Americans onto 4 command dice, and my FOO managed to call in a barrage which pinned the 50 cal and obscured my sight of it and the broken squad.
Between my MG42 and the now battered 3 section they manage to break the second US squad on the German left flank, forcing another morale roll but with no effect. At this point I realised if I ended the turn both US squad leaders would rout and force his morale down lower. He was unlucky with his rolls and his morale tumbled to 0.
I was lucky in that my opponent assumed I would defend in a similar manner to the last encounter with mines, wires and road block and used a fair bit of his support on engineer teams. He also didn't bother bringing on his second sherman which would have caused me more problems. He had no mortars or smoke which meant I was able to pop up and hit him when it suited me.
It was, nonetheless, a brutal encounter and I lost 8 men of which, luckily, 7 are immediately returned to duty due to the force morale difference, and one will make his way back in a future battle. This means I am 4 men down going into the next battle but having won this one I can strengthen my defences again which helps. The US player will be on a monstrous 31 support points. Gulp.
Next time we are playing at my house so there will be no AWOL terrain! Apologies for the comical terrain in the pictures and the rather limited and poor photography. It is a learning curve!
Great batrep! Will play 29 let's go soon myself ��
ReplyDeleteThank you - still working out how best to write these up! Enjoy your campaign, are you playing Germans or US?
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